According to biographer Walter Isaacson, former Apple CEO Steve Jobs spent the last several years of his life designing a custom yacht with an ultralight aluminum hull so his family could sail around the world together. Just over a year after Jobs' death, the boat, dubbed "Venus," was christened on Sunday in the Dutch shipyard where it was built.

Jobs' widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, and their three children attended a ceremony yesterday in Aalsmeer, Netherlands, according to Dutch site One More Thing. Venus was built in the Netherlands by Feadship, with design assistance from noted designer Phillipe Starck. Starck revealed in April that the results of his longtime collaboration with Jobs would be revealed in eight months, suggesting the yacht was finished a little earlier than planned.

A tribute to the minimalist design that Jobs championed at Apple (along with SVP of Industrial Design Jony Ive), the all-aluminum hull looks like it could have been carved from a single piece of aluminum, like many of Apple's computers and mobile products. Other notable features of the finished vessel include smooth, all-teak decks, a rear hatch to launch a separate speed boat when a suitable dock isn't available to go ashore, and a wheelhouse powered by seven 27" iMacs.

Does the hull just appear to be made from a single piece of aluminum, or is it actually made from a single piece of aluminum. That's damn impressive. To be honest, though, I am not a big fan of the exterior of this thing. There are much more beautiful mega-yachts out there.

I hate not seeing the inside...I want to be even more jealous of what I'll never have

Indeed. The outside is gorgeous, I'd love to see if the inside shares the same minimalist tones. Yacht interiors always seem to be so overdone. It's almost as if once someone has made $1 billion dollars they develop this imperative to put fleur-de-lis on everything.

When I saw the headline I was expecting something smooth and sleek with some nice lines to it. That has to be one of the most butt-ugly boats I have ever seen, and I'm including fishing boats in that rotunda. Jobs may have been able to design tech, but he sure couldn't do boats. Thing looks like two bricks welded to a triangle with no thought to form OR function.

Does the hull just appear to be made from a single piece of aluminum, or is it actually made from a single piece of aluminum. That's damn impressive. To be honest, though, I am not a big fan of the exterior of this thing. There are much more beautiful mega-yachts out there.

Yeah, not a massive fan either, the hull is fairly attractive, but the rest looks like someone dropped a greenhouse/pagoda on top.

Wow - so how big can a ship get before its not called a "yacht" anymore? Or is it simply the fact that it's a personal leisure craft. I saw elsewhere that this thing is 260ft long. Mentally I guess I'd always thought of a "yacht" as maybe 100ft or less.

Also, I know even small boats are expensive, so what would something like this run - 10 million?

I remember reading in the biography by Walter Isaacson how Steve Jobs admired Zen Buddism and visited this very place with his daughter.

In the biography it was mentioned multiple times how Steve wanted to achieve his Zen. So, I believe this boat was intended to be a place of meditation for him. Notice in the video how calmly the doors close.

"He also became a serious practitioner of Zen Buddhism, engaged in lengthy meditation retreats at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, the oldest Sōtō Zen monastery in the US. He considered taking up monastic residence at Eihei-ji in Japan, and maintained a lifelong appreciation for Zen. Jobs would later say that people around him who did not share his countercultural roots could not fully relate to his thinking."

Well, it's a good thing that processed aluminum (aluminium) is so easily recyclable, as there must have been a huge amount of waste from a block that size. I certainly hope that the boat has a very good fire surpression system as the hull could easily melt in an intense fire. I'd be curious as what the hull looks like below the waterline. Shape is all important here for efficiency.

And that teak, whew. I hope it was taken from a sustainable source. But I suppose if your are part of the mega-rich you get what ever you want. If it does not have the appropriate certificates, I suggest the Feds seize it like they did to Gibson guitars. Not a very "green" yacht.

I wonder how seaworthy it is in actual use, how energy efficient, etc. It calls to mind the first stealth fighter, where the priority was to be radar invisible, so it didn't in fact fly very well, and needed computers to keep it from falling out of the sky. This ship looks like the priority was to look Jony Ives-like, and it might need help to stay afloat in rough seas. I can just hear Jobs talking to the naval architect: "Smooth that out. It's not sleek enough!" "It's shaped the way it is because of the hydrostatics of buoyancy resonances in shallow wa... Oh screw it, I'll do whatever you want and you can take responsibility for the consequences!"

And the iMacs are already old looking. I wonder in general how it will age. I wonder how much the maintenance will cost to keep it looking decent. I wonder how practical raw, unpainted aluminum is in salt water. The rims of my bicycle are aluminum, and they get dirty and pitted pretty quickly.

"Steve Jobs spent the last several years of his life designing a custom yacht with an ultralight aluminum hull so his family could sail around the world together."

Poignant. He should have leased a yacht for the trip. He actually might have been able to take it then.

"And that teak, whew. I hope it was taken from a sustainable source." It's probably genetically engineered teak, grown in plank shapes in the laboratory.

I hate not seeing the inside...I want to be even more jealous of what I'll never have

Indeed. The outside is gorgeous, I'd love to see if the inside shares the same minimalist tones. Yacht interiors always seem to be so overdone. It's almost as if once someone has made $1 billion dollars they develop this imperative to put fleur-de-lis on everything.

I've seen them both ways. The Maltese Falcon is gorgeous and minimalistic, for one.

This one actually looks pretty bad. I'd have serious concerns about her sea keeping ability, stability, and whatnot. We'll just have to see when she gets to the US.

I have a feeling that this probably doesn't work that well as a boat. An 'ultralight hull' seems like it would be problematic, and if the boat is controlled by 7 computers, a number of problems could arise.

I have a feeling that this probably doesn't work that well as a boat. An 'ultralight hull' seems like it would be problematic, and if the boat is controlled by 7 computers, a number of problems could arise.

Unlikely. Feadship is a very reputable shipbuilder and every major vessel afloat runs on more than seven computers. Those iMacs are just the bridge displays and it's certainty that they're running on custom hardware built for the sole purpose of ship handling. The iMac case is just a shell to go with the design motif.

I have a feeling that this probably doesn't work that well as a boat. An 'ultralight hull' seems like it would be problematic, and if the boat is controlled by 7 computers, a number of problems could arise.

It can be okay, but I can't see that hull taking any type of rough weather. So it'll basically be a glorified houseboat. At which you might as well just get a barge and renovate that.